Christmas Tunes and Stuff

It has been years since I commented on Christmas music.  I was thinking about Christmas music recently because I played in the Christmas band at work a couple weeks ago.  We went to 9 different locations and played for half an hour at each place to help spice up people's work day.  Overall, it was fun.  I got to play my trombone.  And several people thanked me the next Monday for helping to liven things up and get them in the Christmas spirit.  I think this year at work was pretty intense for most people, so they enjoyed some levity.

But what got me really thinking about music was the one stop we made at the retirement home.  We played the full set for them there because they always enjoy it so much.  I think it's fun to see the spark of the old people's personalities come through when we start playing music.  Many of them like to sing along and stuff.  Some of them like to come up and talk to you afterward.  One of the songs in our band's set is having the flute and clarinet player do a duet of "Silent Night".  It's almost good enough to give you chills.  Almost like this (but not quite).  It seemed especially good when we payed at the retirement home.

That got me to thinking about other powerful Christmas songs.  Mostly I think it's the melody that makes them powerful, and then it helps even more if they have good lyrics.  Here are a few that make the top of my powerful list (after Silent Night):

1. Belleau Wood - Garth Brooks did this one many years ago, but it never became popular.  I think it should have.  And, it seems appropriate to remember this on the 100 year anniversary.
2. Christmas Guest - As much as you do it to the least of these my brethren, you do it unto me....
3. Joy to the World - an old classic.  According to Wikipedia, it goes all the way back to 1719 and is based on Psalm 98.
4. Carol of the Bells - Nobody does it better than the Trans Siberian Orchestra (see final link in this post), but this rendition was decent as well.
5. Oh Come All Ye Faithful - nicely done by Celtic Woman.

Oh, and just for grins I went back several years to look again at my favorite silly Christmas songs and somewhat serious Christmas songs.  I think they're worth a look again if you have the time.

Here's a picture from the Christmas band this year.  It's mostly a bunch of engineers and technicians digging out their instruments once a year and having some fun playing some music.  We had quite a few fans at the customer service center this year.

Christmas band this year was similar to last year if you want more details.  Charlie still managed to make it, but he was looking more feeble than he did last year.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 47 & 48

Checked off the list:  #16 - Go to a concert.  I went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra.  If you've never been to see them, it's worth the money at least once.  Be sure to bring your ear plugs though.  It was more guitars and less orchestra than I had expected.  The light show, fire, and fireworks were really cool as well.  I don't need to go see them every year, but once in a while would be OK.

Briefly

Sorry folks, I've been behind schedule here.  My "normal" computer for blogging is having issues, so I'm in the middle of getting all my data off that.  And the next post I wanted to do involved looking up some info on that computer.  And one shouldn't be posting stuff out of order, should one?  Plus, I had some special company last night, so that was keeping me busy.  But...I think maybe tomorrow I will have my act together.

Anteater, you might be interested to know that your "twin" was here for supper and the night last night.  Well, maybe not your twin.  Maybe more like your sister.  In more ways than one.

Plus, I've been trying to warm up my lips for the Xmas band on Friday.

Giving Thanks

I went back to ND/MN for the long Thanksgiving weekend.  It was fairly low key.  A few summary items, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Saw my sister's in-laws.  Since I spend at least one holiday a year with them, they're almost like family I suppose.
2. What should you do Thanksgiving afternoon and evening?  Can some chicken and play some games like "Fact or Crap" and "Smart Donkey".
3. Saw Mom, Dad, BIL-Dan, Muggles, and Boopie.  I guess I'll call her Boopie for now.  I think maybe her nickname should be spaghetti sauce, but since that's two words that seems kind of awkward.
4. To stay on my exercise regimen, we did some of BIL-Dan's Shaun T T25 Focus videos.  Without BIL-Dan.
5. We used the hot tub, but unfortunately it wasn't so hot due to technical issues.  It was kind of like the church of Laodicea.
6. We saw Palt, Wearl, and Bethro over a late lunch on Friday.  It's always nice to see them.
7. Did some more digital scrapbooking to try to stay on track for completing a bucket list item.
8. Helped Dad design a ceramic tile installation pattern.
9. I was peer pressured into doing some shopping at Herberger's on Thursday night around 10:00 PM.  It was OK.  I bought some socks.  Having a suitcase limitation reduces your purchase options.  Not that I would have bought that much anyway.
10. Staying up until 2:30 AM reading a book.  It's not a real holiday/vacation without doing that at least once.
11. BIL-Dan's advertising campaign for Becky's Massage Parlor.  That totally cracked me up.  Vewy nice, vewy cwean.
12. Thankfulness tree.
13. Saw a live mouse running around the MSP airport once most of the people left the area where I was sitting.
14. Got home Sunday night / Monday morning at 2:00 AM.  I hadn't done that for a couple years.
15. Crisp temperatures a couple days while I was there.  Below zero at night is a little unusual in November even for ND/MN.  But that's what I saw.

And a few pictures are below.  I didn't get many pictures of my own family except for Boopie for some reason - mostly they are of my sister's in-laws.

Thankfulness tree - everyone wrote what they were thankful for on a leaf and hung it on the tree.  I think the #1 thing listed was family.

Four generations.  Sort of.

Canning chicken.  It's a bit tricky to get the pressure cooker to vent at just the right rate.  It made me think of Simona in Ukraine since she had wanted some rubber seals for her pressure cooker.

Bethro and Boopie

Boopie's typical state - she's very smiley in general.

Mid-Week Weekend Roundup

This weekend I hung the second kayak from the garage ceiling.  I hate to admit the season has ended so early, but I think if it's snowed 2 or 3 times before December 1 and almost gotten to zero, it's time to face reality.

Does this shirt say "going to a rodeo" to you?  One guy at work on Friday said he thought it did.  For the record, I wasn't going anywhere except to work.

I took a break from a nap on Saturday to re-read some Calvin and Hobbes.  For some reason this one struck my funny bone even if it is a month too early.

I procrastinated a little bit too long and didn't get the leaves raked that I had planned to rake last weekend.  Oh well.  Maybe the snow will cover them.  Or maybe there will be another nice weekend in which to do that.

May all my readers out there have a lovely Thanksgiving.  I went to yoga three times last week, and I think all of them ended the "practice" by telling us to think about what we were thankful for or reminding us to be thankful.  Really, every day should be Thanksgiving, right?

Yesterday my massage therapist was talking about how she wasn't all that excited about Thanksgiving because her husband has to work and her husband doesn't have any family, her dad and his family is in Florida, her sister is going to the in-laws, and her mom's relationship with the mom's side of the family is on the rocks at the moment.  And it made me thankful to think about how I will be spending my Thanksgiving.  If you're able to sit at the Thanksgiving table with friends and/or family that you love and enjoy spending time with, that's a big blessing right there.  Because not all people have that.  Sometimes I take that big blessing for granted.

Assortment of Thoughts

Ananias, I think putting your bare feet into sweaty shoes is about as uncomfortable and gross as putting on sweaty socks.  Plus, then you have to carry your sweaty socks in your hand as you exit.

Today at work one of my co-workers retired after 37 years of working at the company.  That is longer than I have been alive.  I never had the privilege to work with him closely because we worked on different types of products.  Everybody who ever worked with him only had good things to say about him.  He was a very quiet guy who didn't like the limelight, but I'm told he always had a corny joke.  Mostly he just loved simulating circuits and designing circuits that drove lots of watts, particularly into motors.  In fact, his nickname is "Lots of Watts".

I mentioned a few posts ago about what kind of legacy you want to leave behind.  I don't know that I necessarily want to be known only for driving motors, but I think I would want to be known as a good person to work with.

The AT&T call yesterday was somewhat acceptable.  On the less annoying side at least, but still not great.  Now we will see if they "truly" adjust my bill and service as promised.  If they don't, they have lost me as a customer forever.

I think that's about it for today.

The War is On Again

AT&T is messing with my internet bill AGAIN.  So my war with them is back on.  More than a month ago I called to have them reduce my bill cost and thus reduce my speed, but instead they INCREASED my bill and kept the same speed.  What?!?!  I will be calling customer service tomorrow.  It's being quite charitable to call them customer service in my opinion.  Because it's more like customer inconveniencing.

It's highly likely there will be a parting of the ways between myself and AT&T because my demands for retribution will be high.  Which means my internet may be limited for a while.  I'm sure I'll find an alternative, so hopefully you don't experience too much of a lull in blog posting as a result of my dissatisfaction with my service provider.  Wish me luck!

Stuff

Few things feel as nasty as putting sweat-soaked socks back on your feet after you've taken them off to do yoga.

Last weekend I went to the corny state to do some scrapbooking with "the gang" (Bex, Woodwind, Jax, Jenx, Karmx, and some others).  It went well as usual.  At least I got a good start on scrapbooking a foreign trip.  Checking one thing off the bucket list related to that is looking feasible if I keep my nose to the grindstone on that.  I don't feel like bullet points are needed for that.

Few things demotivate me as much as feeling like the project I'm working on is useless and without a clear plan.  And, what is even worse is that me pointing out the lack of plan and resulting delay is falling on deaf ears.  At least that appears to be the case.

Well, I think that's it for today.  Sorry it's a little bit negative today.

Personal Development

I think I heard or read somewhere that people mature physically in their teens, mentally in their 20's, and emotionally in their 30's.  I think I would probably agree with that.  A friend who is 5-10 years older than me told me once that your 30's are a good decade.  For the most part I think I would agree.  But sometimes, all that emotional development can be stressful and involve some growing pains.

What brought that to my mind was some in-person training that I went to yesterday.  It was part of a leadership class that I'm enrolled in.  And the instructor was talking about how leading people is a privilege.  We spent a lot of time learning about how you coach people and develop them rather than just doing everything yourself.  Overall, it was interesting.  We reviewed the DiSC profile as part of that training, which I mentioned before.

They talked about leaving a legacy, and what legacy do you want to leave?  I suppose that applies to both your personal and professional life.  The instructor talked about how somebody's mom died, and right at the end of the visitation someone showed up and was so thankful they hadn't missed it because they wanted to pay their respects.  They had only worked with the deceased lady for 4 months about 13 years before that, but the person had made such a good impression and had such a good legacy that the lady wanted to go to her visitation.  I'm thankful that I have so many good, living examples of people leaving a great spiritual legacy.

Another interesting concept was that we can't only say what we won't do as a leader.  We also need to clearly define what we will do as a leader.  This reminded me of what Jesus said about the man who cast out the devils and swept and cleaned his house, but then he left it empty.  And soon, the spirits came back and were worse than before.  We not only have to try not to do evil, but we need to be filling that void with loving God.

It was mentioned in the training that for "S" and "i" people, trust is given/assumed up front and is broken later through experiences.  For "C" and "D" people, usually trust is not given right away, and trust must be earned.  I found that interesting.

Based on the pre-work we had to do for the class, I was afraid the training might get too touchy-feely for my taste, but I actually thought they did a very nice job of highlighting how leading people is mostly about people - coaching them, encouraging them, correcting them, etc.  We learned about addressing people's personal and practical needs.  They approached the training very logically and explained things well in a practical way without getting pie-in-the-sky.  Of course we had to do lots of group activities and role playing which I dislike, but I also realize how helpful it is to do role-playing sometimes.  And, they balanced it out with other things.  I was also lucky that the training was at the luxurious training center with the fancy food and delicious snacks.  I lead a life of great hardship.  ;-)

I sat next to one lady who is an extreme "i" personality.  SHE was too touchy-feely for my taste.  She talked about "telling your truth" and some stuff like that.  And she invaded my personal bubble within 15 minutes of meeting her.  I appreciate people like that sometimes because they are very much everything I am not, but usually I like to appreciate them in small doses.  :-)  However, opposites attract I'm told.

That's all for now.  Have a great weekend.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 43 & 44

Checked off the list:  #22 - Make homemade granola bars.  They taste good, but they are too gooey in the middle.  I may need to experiment with pan type and oven settings in the future.  Perhaps I may also need to experiment with the liquids-to-solids ratio in the mix.

Weights and Measures

So I'm working on losing a little bit of weight.  Somehow a few pounds snuck on during the summer/fall.  I'm not doing anything extreme.  I'm just making sure I get to the Y more regularly and try to eat a little less and more healthfully.  I've been fairly successful at going to the Y, but not as successful at eating less.  And maybe I've lost one or two pounds.  But I think I've been gaining muscle as well.  At least that's what I tell myself.

I tell you this because it explains why I weigh myself at the Y fairly regularly.  Just for the fun of it today, I did something different.  I weighed myself when I arrived at the Y.  Still too heavy.  Then I went to the bathroom  to eliminate some waste and weighed myself afterward.  I lost about one pound.  Then I exercised for more than an hour and probably burned at least 800 calories.  Then I weighed myself again, and I had gained half a pound from the last measurement.  So my theory is that I drank more water while exercising than I sweated.  Or, that scale isn't all that accurate.  Next time maybe I'll weigh myself three times consecutively to see how repeatable it is.

This nerdy segment has been brought to you by the number 3.

Elections

So...is there some kind of election going on tomorrow?  It seems like no one is able to tell me where I can go on the internet to find my polling place.  I believe my state also requires showing ID to prove your identity before you vote.  How will I successfully make it to the polls with all these restrictions!?!?!  Yes, that's sarcasm.  Everybody and their brother has left a message on my home phone telling me where to find my polling location.

Have you noticed how low the gas prices are?  Pretty nice, huh?  I noticed that diesel costs more than $1 per gallon than gasoline.  I guess the politicians are trying to win the vote of individuals who own cars rather than the vote of businesses who are paying to transport all their cargo.

Remember to vote!  Exercise the right people have fought to gain for you.  Exercise the right you have in this country that many people in other countries don't have.

Drinking from a Fire Hose

Several posts ago I alluded to the fact that I will be taking some leadership training at work.  We had some assigned online homework to do, and then one day in November we'll have some in-person training.  Plus more training after that.  Being the procrastinator that I am (and due to other project work and training priorities), I waited to get seriously started on the online training until this week, and the homework is all due tomorrow.  I am happy to say that I finished it all this evening.  So I don't have to work extra long hours on Friday evening!

I think the total time I spent on the training this week was probably 7 or 8 hours, and pretty much all of it was done in the evening.  That's why the blog has been neglected this week.  Most of the training so far has been useful and practical.  And it's slightly overwhelming to think about all the things you should be thinking about as a leader.  Being authentic, creating trust, determining how to develop people, how to give feedback (both in praise and if the person needs development), how to successfully coach, etc.  Some of the stuff I already knew, but it was good to see some practical examples and to have some concepts reinforced.  They also give you some helpful tools / job aids.

I think one of my bigger challenges will be dealing with the emotional side of being a leader - figuring out how other people like to be interacted with and dealing with their emotions.  My personality and leadership style isn't really all about the emotion.  It's not that I don't have emotions - I definitely do.  But, I don't necessarily like sharing them, and sometimes I don't always like dealing with them in others.  However, I think it will be good for me to learn to deal with them to help me become a better person and in dealing with life in general.  It just may be a struggle getting there.

As part of the training, work pays for us to take the DISC assessment, which is an assessment of leadership styles.  They stress that this is a behavioral assessment, not a personality assessment like Meyers-Briggs.  Which means that you can learn to change your leadership style I suppose.  Here's a general overview of the four different leadership styles:

Here are my specific results.  As you can see, I'm firmly in the "C" camp (I'm the black dot):

That's all for now.  I may have more to say on this later.  But right now, I should probably think about heading toward bed since I don't have to stay up late doing online training and homework.  Toodle-oo!  Have a great weekend.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 41 & 42

Checked off the list:  #12 - Go to Cedar Point - We went there on October 11th and did ride the roller coasters, but of course you're not allowed to take pictures while doing that.  Lesson learned:  Never go there on a Saturday, even in the fall.  Always go on a week day, and maybe even consider paying the extra for the Fast Pass if you really want to get a lot of rides in.  The longest we stood in line was 1.5 hours.  But.....we saw one waiting line that was 3 hours.  Now that is ridiculous.  Ain't no ride worth waiting that long.

Lean Training

I just finished four very full days of training on Lean thinking.  I've worked over 40 hours this week, and I'll still be going to work tomorrow.  But....it was very interesting.  Almost all of the training addressed how we think about and look at the work.  They taught us a few Lean tools, but it was mostly about thoughts processes and beliefs.

For those who aren't all about corporate America buzzword type stuff, Lean is a whole concept / industry that sprang from people and companies studying Toyota to try to understand why Toyota has been so successful in terms of productivity and quality.  One of the central concepts is that everybody tries to eliminate waste (non value added activities) through continuous improvement.  I won't write a whole book on all of that, but if you're interested a couple of the more famous books on Lean are called "Lean Thinking" and "The Toyota Way."

We got to do some fun stuff in the training.  We built toy airplanes using K'nex.  First we started with a terrible assembly process whose point was to illustrate that bad systems will always beat good people.  Then through the week we worked on how to improve that process and become more efficient and lean.  We also played a supply-chain type of game that involved forecasting how much beer the customer would buy.  That was very interesting to see how easily false signals propagate through the supply chain.

In the process of discussing the beer game we played, the instructor mentioned that one of the most consistent industries in terms of customer orders is the pet food industry.  I'm not a pet owner, but I can see how that could be.  Once you find a brand and quantity that works well for your pet, you try to stay consistent with that to prevent cleaning up lots of messes in your house.  Even though this is known, things can still mess with the supply chain.  For example, a store runs a buy-one-get-one-free sale.  So customers stock up for this month and the next month.  However, in the ordering system this sends a big flag that you need lots of stock to replenish everything that was sold (basically two months' worth).  So everybody ramps up their shipping and production.  But....in the second month then the customer doesn't buy any food because they bought it all last month.  So then there is a giant surplus of pet food.  Interesting, huh?

Do you believe that bad systems will always beat good people?  Your first reaction might be to argue with this, but I think it's probably true if  you try to think of examples.  In many organizations, there are usually lots of good people trying to do good things, but in the absence of good systems they feel frustrated and powerless while trying to navigate the organization.

There was also some discussion of the difference between a principle and a rule.  We learned 5 principles and 4 rules of Lean.  This got me thinking about the difference between principles and rules and which one supports the other.  They gave the definition of a principle to be, "A belief or mental model about how the world does or should work that guides our daily decision making."  We didn't really discuss religion, but I think this can be related back to God in some ways.  A principle would be that we should love and serve the one almighty God continuously.  And to help people stay on track with this, God gave the children of Israel the ten commandments (rules).  So it seems to me that in most cases the principle comes before the rule.  Now maybe when we're kids we only know the rule first, but as we mature we begin to see the principles behind the rules that our parents made.

Another interesting thought was the difference between stress and tension.  The statement was made that stress occurs when we know where we are and what the goal is, but we have no idea how we are going to reach the goal.  In contrast, tension occurs when we know where we are and the ideal state we want to achieve, and we have a realistic plan to get there.  I found this very interesting because I would say in the last year at work, I did experience stress many times where I was frustrated because the goal seemed way too big without a clear path to get there.  But I also have had experiences in the past year where work had tension and not stress.  The goal at work was clear and in some ways a very big challenge, but I knew what I had to do to meet that challenge.

We read a case study on the health care industry and one hospital that did some experimentation on how to make a hospital more lean in order to save money and prevent medical mistakes.  After reading this case study, it kind of makes you a little bit afraid to go to the hospital.  And it's not because nurses and doctors are bad people.  Nurses and doctors are some of the most dedicated people we have in the world.  But....most of them are in bad systems that prevent them from doing their best work, which results in many people dying every year from medical mistake complications.  According to one statistic, medical mistakes are the third largest cause of death in the U.S. - second only to heart attacks and cancer.  If you want to read more in depth, some recommended reading on that topic was "Designed to Adapt",  "Demanding Medical Excellence", and books written about the Pittsburgh Regional Health Care Initiative.

The statement was also made, "Don't let beliefs short circuit getting real data."  I think this applies to a lot of situations.  And sometimes when people make judgments or assumptions without data or in spite of data, it gets me kind of riled up.  Just ask Uncle Bex.

We also spent several hours learning about reflection today and how important it is to take time to reflect.  And I realized that's kind of what this blog is.  It's a place where I can sit down and write about things going on in my life and reflect on them.  In the course of this reflection discussion it was mentioned that back in the 80's Sears was a retail giant.  About 1% of the GDP in the U.S. came from Sears.  But.....they ignored some of the signs of the times and didn't take time to reflect and plan as they should have, and now Wal-Mart has replaced Sears as the major retailer.  Today Wal-Mart makes up 2% of the GDP in the U.S., and they're second in purchasing power behind the U.S. government.  That's pretty crazy, isn't it?  Like many things, reflection is one of those things you have to MAKE time for because it's important but doesn't always seem urgent.  It's all about priorities.  That's kind of the same thing for prayer, isn't it?  We make time for it.

Another statistic given was that 87% of people who are heavily involved in religious organizations say that they became involved by an informal personal interaction with one person they trusted and respected at just the right moment when that person said just the right thing.  Hmmm......food for thought there.  Sound familiar?

All right, I've probably given you enough fodder to chew on for now.  Have a good weekend.  Oh, and by the way, the training center had delicious food.  Morning snack, fancy lunch made by a chef, afternoon snack.....Mmmmm...mmmm....mmmmm.

Videos of Note

In sorting through my giant mail pile the other day, I read an article about this video on how to wash your hair in space.  Check it out - it's really cool.

And, just for fun, here's an interesting music video that I saw on Saturday while standing in line at Cedar Point.  Just FYI, The Black Keys is a band of white guys, and the guy in the video is a random extra.  And yes, it's all one take.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 39 & 40

Checked off the list:  #15 - Go to Grand Rapids Art Prize.  It was pretty cool.  I'm not a huge art fan, but I will say that this city event is pretty cool and I saw a lot of art that I liked.  It's like a city-wide art show that goes on for three weeks and allows the public to vote on their favorite art.  They have art that is 2D, 3D, time lapse based, indoors, outdoors, all kinds of mediums, performance art, etc.  More on that in a later post.

This guy paints a mural over the span of two weeks during the art show.

Fun Facts

Who thought giant bars of soap were a good idea?  I was given one as a gift recently, so I'm using it right now.  Not only is it large, but it's also square.  This makes it very awkward because you almost have to use two hands to hold it, and then the square shape doesn't fit in your hand very well.  It can also be dangerous in the shower if you drop it on your toe because it's heavy and has sharp edges.  Dove has it right with a bar of soap that's gently curved and fits nicely in your hand.  This large bar of soap is quite fancy though - it's ginger and lime flavored with poppy seeds for exfoliation.

Did you know that a capillary blood vessel can get/grow on the outside of your skin?  It's called a hemangioma.

A couple weeks ago as I was driving through town I saw this guy walking around on the road like he owned it.

The furnace may need to be turned on this weekend.  One day is supposed to have a high of 49 degrees F.  And I will have company, so I'll feel obligated to keep my company comfortable and stuff.  And I kind of like to be comfortable too.  :-)

Partial Mid-September Update

What have I been busy with?  Well, mostly with 'vention.  The first weekend in September I went to three days of my "home" 'vention in this state, and last weekend I went to my "home" 'vention back in ND.  Both of them were excellent of course.

Nothing against the people here in this state, but because I'm newer to this state (kinda-sorta - more than 11 years is still new sometimes), live in the very corner of the state, don't have any other relatives in the state, and am not a big talker, I'm not well-known in these parts so 'vention can be a bit lonely.  But, I do have to say that this year was the least lonely, and not because I met any "nice boys".  Maybe because I had already had some 'vention the week before and my heart was already somewhat soft.

I also decided to do some social experimenting.  I decided that if I was feeling awkward or bored while standing in the food line or eating at the table that I would try to make conversation with someone nearby even if I didn't know them well or didn't know them at all.  And it was fairly successful.  You meet a lot of nice people standing in line as the song says.  And maybe a lot of them are just as shy as you, which is why they aren't talking either.  And of course we had lots of spiritual food.  Some gems from there:

1. We trust God by letting Him do his work in us and change us, and the blessing of change comes when we obey.
2. Are we making a good choice, or are we making God's choice?
3. At the beginning of the day, it's more important to get our spirit presentable than it is to get our physical body presentable.
4. Sowing in the place God has given us is never a loss.  And whatever our place is, be willing for it.
5. We all have the privilege of showing kindness.
6. Little things:  Nehemiah worked on fixing the little things first.  Sometimes fixing the little things gives us courage for the big things.  If we learn to be faithful in little things, we can be faithful in big things.
7. Being a light isn't just saying nice things, it's also living it.  God loves to use the living testimony of His people to be a light.
8. Praying for the kingdom and for our brother is being faithful in our place.
9. God has need of you - keep your heart and purpose true.
10. A fire easily goes out by neglect.

The view from my tent around breakfast time.  Sometimes you see turkeys out there eating breakfast in the morning too.

I guess I was feeling radiant that day.  ;-)

Miscellaneous and Socks

I feel like I'm falling terribly behind in the blogging department - possibly because I am.  I've been busy going to 'vention and seeing family and stuff.  More on that later.  After I get ambitious enough to download some pictures.

Racquetball is back on the calendar.  Today I played a guy that I think is in his 70's.  He can get points with his serve, but I ran him around enough that he got tired and I was able to win all three games, which is a first against him.  But....he also has some trouble seeing up close, so sometimes he misses the ball because of that.  And I tired him out enough in the second game that he had to sit down and rest three times.  Which technically probably isn't legal, but I didn't care too much.  I was just glad he sat down instead of collapsing on the court.

Work is kind of status quo at the moment.  And the furnace has not been turned on here at home.  So that's the exciting news from Lake Wobegon.

To tide you over, here are some impressive and/or symmetrical sock pictures that I have collected over the past year.  Some of these may or may not be in wearing circulation.

Fall Stuff and Things

It's been slightly chilly here.  The house temperature is in the lower 60's, and the high temperatures for the next few days probably won't be much warmer than that.  This could get serious and require turning on the furnace.  I've already had to break out the little electric space heater to help ward off the chill.

I think I forgot to tell you when I turned on the air conditioning this year.  The date was August 23rd.  And I think the last time the AC ran for the year was probably September 6th.  That's a pretty short AC season.  Just sayin'.

I bought a new grill today - I need to borrow a pick-up truck and go to Lowe's and pick it up some time this week.  It's sort of been a purchase that has been percolating in the back of my mind because my current one is about 10 years old, so when I was there today I picked out a moderately nice one and bought it.  See how impulsive I am?

From a conversation with some friends today, I believe I probably have red squirrels in my attic and walls.  So now the war begins.  Hopefully I can keep my motivation to wage the war this fall.

I have a new project at work.  Over the last couple weeks I read and/or skimmed more than 2000 pages of technical specifications, datasheets, and documentation.  That's a lot.  I now know way more about USB 2.0 than you can probably imagine.  This week I will hopefully be doing more of the "fun stuff", which means I get to continue drawing a schematic.

That's about all I know at the moment.  Maybe more will be forthcoming tomorrow.

More Sugar

Aunt Eater asked why I was looking up the different types of sugars.  It all started with tuna fish.  Uncle Bex was making some tuna salad, and she got out the agave to do so.  I picked up the bottle to look at it, and I noticed it had a little glycemic scale on it, and it showed agave as being low on the glycemic scale.  This got me wondering what made stuff high on the glycemic scale, and I know that types of sugar affect the glycemic scale.  And I didn't know what type of sugar was in agave, so I looked that up.  Then to try to compare it to table sugar, I had to look that up.  And this led to other types of sugar.  Nerdy!

So I never did look up what types of sugars have a high glycemic index.  And I found conflicting evidence related to agave.  The bottle said it was low on the glycemic index, but Wikipedia also said it is criticized for quickly increasing insulin levels.  Maybe both are true....compared to some things it's low, but maybe compared to other things (like meat or veggies) it's high.

Just now in the process of writing this I found this link that tells how they measure the glycemic index (GI) of a food.  That's pretty cool.  Also of interest on this website is that things with a GI over 100 include corn flakes, glucose, white rice, a dessert with high fructose corn syrup, potatoes, pancakes, a corn muffin, a Clif bar, and white bread.  But it's kind of confusing because I found Russet Burbank baked potatoes on the list twice - once with a GI over 100, and one with a GI around 55.  Apparently it has highly varying results.  Sucrose is in the 50-80 range depending on exactly the portion size and when they ran the test apparently.  Agave (mostly fructose) has been measured 3 times, and it was in the 10-20 range.  So I guess that's pretty low.  Wikipedia might be wrong in this case.

And, did you know that there is a disorder/disease called sucrose intolerance?  It's where a person's body can't break down sucrose, but the body can absorb other simple sugars like glucose and fructose.  Oddly enough, onions, carrots, and garlic are high in sucrose.

To conclude, here is a nerdy joke for you that some of you may have seen on facebook, but I thought I'd post it here as well.

The engineer's wife left a note for him to help prepare dinner that evening:   "Shepherd's Pie needs to be taken out of the freezer and placed in the oven at 140 degrees."

Another Summer Gone

Technically summer won't be gone until later this month, but the "tourist" summer has ended.  It was a very good summer, just a little bit short.  As usual, fall looks like it will be very busy as well.

I spent the Labor Day long weekend hanging out in the corny state going to 'vention with Uncle Bex and Jax and Jenx and a few cousins and Brenda C-O-S.  Some of the highlights:

1. Heart spoken to quite clearly.  It's nearly impossible to get a picture of that, but probably most of you know what I'm talking about.  If I tried to explain everything here or summarize my notes, it would get too long.
2. Uncle Bex and I were in charge of cookies.  We may or may not have eaten a few of the "better" ones we came across while filling or emptying the containers.  We were smart enough not to take any pictures of THAT.
3. Good talks with good friends and family.
4. I think I've said this before, but Malcom 'vention has some of the best sweet corn ever.  Possibly only rivaled by Hunter 'vention sweet corn.  And, I think I also nominate Malcom as having the best vegetable salads.  Along with some other pretty delicious food too.
5. We made homemade lemonade with mint and sipped it while sitting under the wisteria playing cards and board games.  And we weren't even below the Mason Dixon line.  If we had been, maybe we would have sipped mint juleps.
6. Clumsiest hike ever for me I think.  I somehow tripped while my hands were in my pockets or something, so I landed chest first in the dirt.  Luckily not much got dented or scraped or broken.
7. Beautiful scenery.
8. Some nerdiness may have occurred.  Such as researching the types of sugar.  Do YOU know the difference between fructose, glucose, and sucrose?  The brief summary is that fructose and glucose are both simple sugars that can be absorbed directly into the blood stream, but sucrose cannot be and is made up of one fructose molecule and one glucose molecule with covalent bonds.  The usual "table sugar" is sucrose.
9. Coolish nights and air conditioning in the meetin' shed - we were spoiled!  It sure beat last year when it was in the 90's almost every day without AC and the nights were anything but cool.
10. Some fresh garden treats from Uncle Bex - fresh basil and cucumbers.  And some delicious cookies.

The early morning walk scenery - usually while the dew was still quite heavy.

An old grist mill museum thing.  We didn't get to tour it, but it looked cool from the outside.

Check this snail out - he was hanging out on a caterpillar web thing on a tree branch.

Instead of a black hole, we found a shining orb.

What was it Jax said?  Naughty and Nerd?  Something like that.....

The Weekend Was a Zoo

Two weekends ago I went over to the cheesy state to the house of Jax.  Jenx, Shax, and Bex were present as well.  We were meeting there to do a 5K mud run/walk/obstacle course, hang out, and go to the zoo.  I think that about sums it up - I'll let the pictures (and comments on pictures) do the rest of the talking.  No bullet points today.  I know, it's quite possible I may be sick.

All fresh and clean - ready to start the race (Shax, Jax, Jenx, Bex, and Mex)

Dirty Girls - that ain't no big thang because......

....I'm an old hand at that.  Sort of a Throwback Tuesday here.

After we cleaned ourselves up and possibly plugged the drain in Jax's showers, we headed to the zoo for the late afternoon/evening.

This guy was cute.

So was he.  (Thanks to Bex for sharing her pictures)

They were doing some a la carte stuff at the zoo, so I tried the poutin.  I hear it's all the rage in Canada:  french fries with fresh cheese curds and gravy.  It was decent I thought.  Good enough to try it again sometime anyway.

This elephant did acrobatics to get the the greener grass "on the other side".  Apparently he hasn't been watering his side well enough lately.

This sea lion did acrobatics too.

The camels were frolicking.  True story.  If you look closely, you can see a tiger in the background.

One of the camel's humps was kind of sagging, so that prompted some research to be done.  Contrary to what you might have heard, it's fatty tissue in those humps, not water.  But it is true that camels can drink a whole bunch of water (50 gallons) at one time and then don't need to drink for a long time because they can store water in their stomachs.  And, they are super efficient water users.  Their urine is barely a liquid.  Their nose tissues capture water when they exhale and recycle it.  And, they are one of the few mammals that can lose 25% of the water in their body and still be alive.  Most mammals can only lose 12-14% before they go into cardiac failure.  In mild climates, camels can get enough water from the vegetation they eat that they don't need to drink water.  They also have a transparent third eyelid.  Pretty cool, huh?

I just can't do it captain!  I don't have the power!  The harbor seal had to take a little rest before going through the door.  Give him a break - it was a really hot day.

A few interesting and nerdy facts.  Make special note of #2 - Infrared images.....nerdy!

Bye Bex!  We promise we'll come visit you.  Or is it us that were in the cage?  That's the thing about zoos.  Sometimes it's hard to tell who is looking at whom.

 
Not shown here:  the warthog.  Guess what song we sang when we saw him?  Of course we saw all kinds of other stuff.  Lions, tigers, bears......jaguars, rhinos, penguins, llamas, monkeys, gorillas, caribou, bongos, etc.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 31 & 32

Checked off the list:  #14 - Run in a 5K event.  I did a 5K mud run on August 16, 2014.  I ran most of the way.  But....I did walk a little bit and stopped to wait for my friends sometimes.  I'm counting it anyway.  :-)  Flat MelBMarvis came to help cheer us on.

Stuff and Things

A couple thoughts from the day will be posted here.

Have you seen that video floating around facebook about "this is what a McDonald's burger does to your body"?  Where they put a whole McDonald's hamburger into hydrochloric acid (HCl) for a couple hours?  The half of the burger actually in the acid mostly dissolves but not completely, and it kind of turns the HCl a dark brown/black.  Is this supposed to scare me?  I don't understand how.  First of all, most people chew their food before they put it in their stomach, which makes very tiny pieces, which increases surface area of the food and makes it easier to digest.  Secondly, have you ever seen what color someone's puke is?  Yeah, it's usually some shade of brown if it's been partially digested.  And, as they say at the end of the video, pure HCl is not completely representative of your stomach because it's missing some of the enzymes, etc. that help dissolve fat when it's in your stomach.  To me, that seems like bad science in that video.  Make an experiment that is partially representative of the situation, and then extrapolate recklessly.

On a totally different subject, I was thinking about what makes kids so precious.  I was thinking about this because of several texts I received with pictures of my nieces.  And because of a situation near my parents where someone lost a child recently.  In addition to all the care and labor (pun intended) it takes to create a child in the first place and the love God puts in the hearts of parents when their children are born, I think what else is so heartbreaking when a child dies is to see all that potential taken away.  Kids have so much potential, don't they?  They're so innocent and haven't become jaded yet.  They have great hope, faith, and trust in their parents and the future.  How could we not be sad to lose something like that?  Even though we know as those children become adults they will change and may not reach their full potential, we still love to dream about what could be.  If they do reach their full potential, that is beautiful as well.  And, we probably love children because it gives us a glimpse of how we want to be spiritually....full of hope, faith, and trust in our Father and the future.

That is all for today.  Until next time, readers.

Book Review: Sliding on the Snow Stone

A year or more ago, in an e-mail, my friend Charlie recommended reading the book "Sliding on the Snow Stone" by Andy Szpuk.  It went on "the list" of books to read, but wasn't all that close to the top.  Over the year I've been whittling away at "the list", and it was kinda sorta near the top for the last few months, and I actually downloaded it to my Kindle.

Then I went on vacation to Ukraine, and what better book to read on the way home than "Sliding on the Snow Stone?"  The book is a memoir of a boy who lived through Holodomor and WWII in Ukraine.  It's a very gripping tale for sure.  It highlights the hardship and heartbreak that many Ukrainians saw in the 20th century.  The last chapter or two slow down some, but I still considered it a very good read to the end.  I don't want to be a spoiler by giving too many details and I don't even have any good quotes from the book, but I do highly recommend reading the book.

It made me think about how fortunate I am to live in a place where I can see my family almost any time I want to.  Or at least at a minimum talk to them any time I want to.  It made me thankful that for the most part, human life is valued in this country.  It made me thankful to live in a land of freedom and liberty.  It made me thankful that I live in a land with plenty of food.  I guess you could just say it made me thankful.

Observations for the Day

At work today, I realized the sales rep paradox:  The sales rep always wants to talk to the engineers who are too busy working on important projects to talk, and they don't necessarily want to talk to the engineers who have time to talk because they aren't on the important projects.

It was kind of a strange day today.  First of all, the weather was 60 degrees F and spitting rain all day like it was April instead of August.  Despite that, I was in a fairly good mood at the start of the work day.  Then I got a little bit owly before lunch.  I was in a better mood after lunch (probably the food helped).  Losing at softball made me a bit down, but then I came home and did some exercise and felt good again.  Weird.

Also, today I wore one of the shirts I purchased last Thanksgiving.  I had worn it once or twice before, but not to work.  But when I put it on this morning, I thought it probably looked enough like "me" that people might not notice it was new.  That was a bad assumption.  Several people did notice.  One CAD guy and our docs management lady thought it almost looked sparkly without being shiny.  That sounds about right for an engineer.  One of the other CAD guys took the opportunity to make comments about how the shirt was reminiscent of chain mail.  I punched him in the throat.  ;-)

The softball and beach volleyball seasons are over for the year.  We got eliminated in both tournaments this week.  So now I will have a couple weeks of less "scheduled" week nights.  Which is a good thing as long as it doesn't last too long.

That's it for today.

Conflict Resolution

I was reminded of elementary school the other day.  Sometimes the school counselor would come into the class and give guidance sessions.  If I remember correctly, one of those sessions involved teaching us about conflict resolution.  As part of that, she taught us a little "script" that can be used to help.  It goes like this:  "When you __________ I feel _________.  I wish _________."  At the time I thought it was ridiculous and kind of corny.  And up until about 4 or 5 months ago, I still did.  However, recent events have given me a greater appreciation for it.  I haven't specifically used this, but I've realized how critical it is to have all three elements as part of the conflict resolution:

1. State what the person is doing specifically that you don't like.
2. State how it makes you feel / how it affects you (and others)
3. Suggest a better plan of action.

If you leave out the first part completely or give kind of a general statement like "I think you're doing a bad job", you rob the person of the opportunity to understand what specific actions he or she needs to address.  And if they don't know specifics, how can they change?

Stating how it affects you is also necessary to help the person understand why a change would be necessary - helping them be more empathic toward you I suppose.  If you leave this part out, I think the person doesn't see why they need to change.  They need motivation.  But, you can't do only this part.  Saying only, "I feel like you're not doing your share of the work", doesn't really help much either.  They might feel like they're doing plenty of the work.

And finally, suggesting a better plan of action.  I think this is one people often leave out, at least based on my limited, recent observation.  It seems many people like to criticize or complain about your actions, but when asked what a better plan of action would be, often they can't/won't give one.  I'm not sure why this is - maybe it's just human nature.  And only giving suggestions on how to change isn't all that effective either.  If you just tell someone what they need to do differently, they might just think you're trying to be bossy if you don't tell them the other two parts of the statement.

I know this one statement isn't the be-all, end-all of conflict resolution, but I think it is a very good place to start with some dialogue.  Also, be warned that this fall I'm starting some leadership training at work, so you may be getting more of this type of post for the next year or so.  That's it for today.  Now go resolve some conflict!

Brief Stint

Ummm...yeah....you may have noticed I'm falling behind on my 2014 bushel basket list.  I'm not sure if I will have a recovery plan or not.  But I suppose the list is a tool, and one shouldn't allow themselves to be controlled by a helpful tool, right?  I'll still try to get back on track, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to get back on track.

I looked up one of my Google profiles, and based on my internet activity they estimate I'm a 25-34 year old male.  Hmmm......half right ain't bad.  I wonder what they will say in 6 months......

Monday is almost over.  Have a good rest of the week!

Amusing Stuff

I was in training for two days this week learning more about a software package that we use to do engineering calculations and equation solving.  When discussing that kind of thing, it usually necessitates discussing vectors.  Which reminded one of my co-workers of a movie his kids like.

Here is an excerpt from the "real video".

And here is a slightly doctored video that is also very funny and stresses the definition of a vector.  Both of these crack me up because they are nerdy!  Maybe if you're not into physics or engineering it's not quite so funny, I don't know.

During training the instructor was telling about one customer that wanted to use units of Megaseconds (which is about 11.574 days, by the way).  And then I had the idea to invent the unit of Kiloseconds (which is about 16.7 minutes).  Which brought to mind this movie clip.  If you're watching with children, watch out around 2:25 for one swear word.

That's your laugh for the day (hopefully)!

Ukraine Experience 2014: Part 4 (Final One)

Final Ukraine highlights:

8.  History lessons.  We got a lot of these.  And that's a good thing - to have a "culture adventure" as my boss termed it.  That's an apt description in my opinion.  We didn't climb any mountains or go skydiving, but we did learn a lot about a different culture.  And we learned a lot about WWII and found out that we didn't learn so much about world history in high school.

Did you know that Ukraine was oppressed by Russia before WWII (what Ukrainians call The Great Patriotic War)?  While the U.S. was depressed in the dirty thirties, Ukraine was depressed by the Russians.  The Ukraine crop was good, but the Russians took all of it and purposefully starved the people to better subdue them.  Millions died in what they call "holodomor" - death by hunger.  So when the Germans came, maybe some of them had a small glimmer of hope that things might be different.  Of course they soon lost that notion.  And then the Russians were back and established the Iron Curtain for about 45 more years.  Ukraine became free from Russia again in the early 1990's.

I think almost any American who has never been a soldier in a war and was born after 1945 probably can't imagine how horrific some of the things in history are.  But I got a little bit more of a vision of how cruel one human can be to another human by hearing some of the stories there and reading one memoir.  One person said when they first went to Ukraine they wondered why so many people clung to their large garden plot and one cow and couple chickens.  Why didn't they just get a good job and then buy their food at the market?  The answer was, "Because you can't eat money."  And many Ukrainians have learned that lesson the hard way.

Mill stones at the Famine Memorial in Kiev.  Not only did the Russians take the grain, but they broke their millstones and grinding wheels as well.

Statue at the Famine Memorial - an emaciated girl with 5 heads of wheat - the maximum the people were allowed to have in their possession without their life being in danger.

Famine Memorial in Kiev.  We were told the giant hole symbolizes hunger.

We also got to tour the Lutsk castle.  And I got to hear from Bert about the revolutionary catapult that Alexander the Great used to help defeat Tyre - this was sparked by seeing an example one at the castle.  It's always fun to unexpectedly see someone's passion for a subject suddenly come to light.

Entrance to Lutsk castle.  You can see the Ukrainian flag at the top.  Blue on the top half for sky, and gold/yellow on the bottom half for wheat.

Getting a history lesson from Bert.

Inside the Lutsk Castle.

Oh, and there are a lot of churches in Ukraine.  Many of them are Ukrainian Orthodox, but we saw a few large Catholic ones as well.  I'm not sure if this is 100% true, but one person told us that the Orthodox put the gold on the outside of the church (see previous post with all the gold domes), and the Catholics put the gold on the inside of the church.  I hope I continue to put my gold in a place where moth and rust can't get to it.

9.  Countryside.  It was enjoyable.  Peaceful.  We took a walk at least once a day.  I would describe the landscape there as similar to Iowa or North Dakota but with a bigger variety of crops.  Ukraine is known as the bread basket of Europe with their very fertile land and gentle rolling hills.  We saw potatoes, beets (some for sugar, some for cow fodder), wheat, barley, oats, mustard, soybeans, etc.  There were peaceful lakes.  And people bringing their cows in from the pasture back to the barn every evening. Near some places where there were a lot of flowers you could hear a huge buzz coming from all the bees in the area.  And poppies grow wild nearly everywhere there.  Uncle Bex was quite diligent at taking pictures of the various flowers along the road for her Ukrainian weed calendar.

See those large warehouse-like buildings in the distance?  Those are the old Soviet communal farming buildings - not really used anymore is what we were told.

Potato field blooming.

Poppies and crops.

Uncle Bex in the sunset light.

Flat MelBMarvis enjoyed the countryside too.

No words needed on this one.

Quaint perfectly matching farmstead.

I call this "Pastoral Scene."

10.  Heart being fed.  I saved the best for last.  For me, I think my heart was fed the best it has ever been in four days.  Probably for a lot of different reasons.  A week to help prepare my heart beforehand.  Fewer distractions because I wasn't thinking too much about my job or what was going on at home.  And maybe because we didn't speak the language, we had to spend more of our time feeling.  Whatever the exact reason, it was very heartening.

I enjoyed watching the care flow between two special ladies who had known each other in a different time and a different place in a different country a long time ago.  We also learned some good lessons about a culture that is still young.  We learned about enduring without fellowship for decades.  And hopefully we were able to help give back to some hearts there.  I think we also learned to appreciate more the freedom we have here in America as well.


Many people ask, would I go back?  The answer to that is, "Of course!"  Will I be going back soon?  Not necessarily.....there are so many places to see, so little vacation time.  But...one should never say never...which reminds me of a verse I read this week.  James 4:14-15:  "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

I will now conclude with a couple pictures that didn't fit a certain category, but they were memorable enough that I felt I should post them.

"Bucket shower" - available in case the other "real shower" was occupied.  And yes, I did use it a couple times.

A fairly common setup of a Ukrainian shower room.  The toilet is in its own closet, and then the tub and hand-washing sink are in a closet.  Sometimes the sink and shower share a spigot as shown here.

Whoops - bad Americans!  Looks like our juice purchase supported Russian commerce.